The Confidential

The ACC School Mount Rushmores: Boston College.

The Confidential has been having some fun with league-wide coaches Mount Rushmores.  Football and Basketball, plus polls for each of football and basketball to share your thoughts.  In fact, it was so sufficiently fun and controversial that we are going to do school-wide Mount Rushmores now.  And we will only put three people on the list, leaving you–our readers–to comment as to who should be the fourth.  We will not do polls anymore.  For today, let’s go with the school that has fallen on hard times lately, but was very successful in its first several years in the ACC: Boston College.

As we discussed with Maryland, these school-wide Mount Rushmores are limited to sports only–players and coaches.  That being said, athletes that have gone on to have careers that have furthered their legend are rewarded also.   And negative publicity will also be factored in.  We do not believe that USC would put OJ Simpson on its Mount Rushmore.  It is what it is.  Admittedly, there will be a recency bias too.  While historical accomplishments are typically quite impressive, coaching college football (as an example) in 1955 was a lot different than coaching today, where coaches rarely get 5 years to make their mark anymore.  Similarly, in an era of up to 14 college football games or 40 college basketball games, as well as daunting pressure from the fans and media, today’s game is more challenging.  That’s our opinion and we are sticking to it.

The Confidential gives the first spot to Doug Flutie.  The Confidential cares not that he has yet to be enshrined in the Boston College Hall of Fame.  Doug Flutie is responsible for one of the most iconic images of the past several decades of college football–the Hail Mary against Miami.  For most people over the age of 40, Doug Flutie and Boston College are synonymous.  While his post-Boston College career was up and down, it was never overly negative.  And the guy won a Heisman Trophy.  In fact, we’ve got no choice but to pull up some video of that classic Hail Mary again!

The next spot goes to Art Donovan.  Donovan was inaugurated in the Boston College Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame in 1970.  He rose to fame as a member of the Baltimore Colts, where he was routinely an All-Pro.  He is also enshrined in the National Football Hall of Fame.

The third spot is a very tough one.  Even the #2 spot was a bit difficult.  But, for #3, the Confidential is going to go with Joe Mullen.  Although Mullen was a star at Boston College, he was not drafted and had to earn his way in the professional hockey ranks.  And that he did–Mullen was ultimately enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000.  One of the great American hockey players of all time, Mullen played 18 seasons, with 500+ goals and assists.  According to Wikipedia, he was the first American to reach the 500 goal, 1000 point threshold.  As a two-time Lady Bing Award winner, he was a gentleman on the ice.

And that leads us to the number four spot.  We’ll update this post in one week, once we get sufficient comments to determine who gets this fourth spot.  Here are some names that you might want to consider: Frank Leahy, Dana Barros, Michael Adams, Troy Bell, Bob Cousy (coach), and Dr. Tom Davis.  But you let us know who should be #4.

Who will be the Confidential’s fourth Boston College Eagle in its Mount Rushmore?

Other Mount Rushmores:

ACC Football Coaches

ACC Basketball Coaches

Maryland